SPENDING on agency nursing in Scotland’s hospitals has rocketed in five years according to a new report.

Audit Scotland said that spending has more than doubled from £83m to £171m from 2011/12 to 2016/17.

In Greater Glasgow the cost of each agency nurse is almost £90,000 per year compared to £36,000 for an employed nurse.

The report states that there has been an increase in the vacancy rates for both medical and nursing staff across the country.

While it recognises the NHS workforce is at its highest level and spending on the NHS has increased the Scottish Government has not planned its workforce effectively for the long term.

In the report Caroline Gardner, Auditor General, said: “There are urgent workforce challenges facing the NHS and improving workforce planning is critical to addressing these pressures.

“The NHS in Scotland is undergoing major reform, in particular seeking to shift towards more community and home-based care. Dedicated funding to support NHS reform does not clearly identify associated workforce costs.

“Vacancies for certain consultant and nursing positions remain high and are proving difficult to fill.”

Opposition politicians said the report showed government mismanagement of staffing in the health service.

Anas Sarwar, Labour’s Health spokesman said: “This is an absolutely damning report.

“It reinforces our warnings that the SNP has presided over a workforce crisis in our NHS, leaving staff over-worked, under-valued and under-resourced.

“Staff morale is at rock bottom in the health service, with staff reporting there simply aren’t enough of them to do the job properly.”

Miles Briggs, Conservative health spokesman said: “Time and again we have seen warnings about long term workforce planning, and these figures show the situation is only getting worse.”

A spokeswoman for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: “The board has a focussed approach to eliminating the use of premium rate agency staff.

“We have introduced a new medical bank model to reduce our reliance on locum agency spend and we have a workforce plan using the national framework.”